Wheaton school board keeps mum on closed-door meetings
The mystery surrounding a series of closed-door meetings by the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 board members continues.
After meeting privately for about 15 minutes on Wednesday night, board members took no action and continued their discussion about "appointment, employment or dismissal of an employee" to 7:30 tonight at the School Service Center, 130 W. Park Ave., Wheaton.
The agenda wasn't changed and still includes an item that calls for action to be taken on "closed session topics/administrative contracts."
Wednesday night's brief session was the board's fourth private discussion on the same topic in less than two weeks. Three previous sessions, including a nearly two-hour discussion on Tuesday, ended with board members remaining mum.
Like the past three meetings, board members revealed nothing about who the employee under discussion is. But most signs point to it being school superintendent Richard Drury.
Drury, who joined the district in July 2007, hasn't come to work since Sept. 22.
Board members continue to insist Drury is on vacation. Still, that hasn't silenced widespread rumors that he is leaving the district - just months after getting a one-year contract extension, through 2012.
Last week, Drury was at the district headquarters when one of the special sessions took place. He didn't sit in on the meeting with the board. Instead, the district's lawyers were seen going back and forth between the office where Drury was waiting and the area where the board was meeting.
Drury hasn't responded to several requests for comment.
School board President Andy Johnson has said that if the board members were dissatisfied with Drury in July, they wouldn't have extended his contract at that time. That contract is paying Drury a base salary of $208,000 this year.
Meanwhile, several parents have attended the meetings to find out what's going on.
On Tuesday, Johnson said there were things that needed to be worked out in closed session before any information could be released.
"And those things take time," he said.